I have NO idea at all about 3D drawings etc.I am here as an older mechanic learning about woodworking which brings me now to trying to draw simple plans.Unfortunately I am getting stuck,I have read many topics and many many YouTube vids
but sometimes frustration gets the better of me which is why I asked about a beginners sub forum as any questions I have will absolutely be on a learners level.
If not here is a screenshot of the trouble I am having now,I am wanting to draw a basic workbench but I appear to have one of the work legs misaligned with the others ( I think).
I have tried to add the .skp file but unsure whether it worked
Any assistance is gratefully accepted
Regards
Geoff
No there is no specific beginner sub forum, although it has been suggested. So ask away in any of the relevant forums.
Your leg is misaligned because one side is thicker than the other.
Here you can see I go into the component and use pushpull to correct the thickness, then move the leg up into place.
Your componenting is a bit mixed up, the four legs could be copies of one component and the two sides copies of one etc etc. Think of them as real world objects and make that piece a component as you would in wood.
Your post worked. Your upload of the SKP file worked. I’m looking at it now.
The part that didn’t work was knowing what you wanted us to check. I don’t know if there is a beginners sections, but I hope that people here will answer your question knowing that you’re new to SketchUp.
Thanks very much Box
I do get a bit mixed up in the componenting,I tried to copy the legs but got them mixed up while moving them around.
Would I be better off to make the legs from say the ground up,like draw the top first and then push/pull the legs from the top ?
How did you show yourself correcting those mistakes, perhaps in future I can show how I drew the piece to ghelp others understand what I did better
Hi Colin
I was a little vague I guess but the misalignment of the leg and connecting piece had me stumped, every time I tried to select the leg I ended up selecting the whole drawing
Box pointed out some other issues, but just on the general moving of things, you can choose the Move tool, point to the corner of the stool, and drag it to the Origin. That will at least center it.
Box
Im attempting to copy your process but whenever I select the push/pull tool I get the little red arrow indicating that this operation isn’t allowed
After many attempts and a google search I found out that I needed to edit the group or component, after many clicks I got it to work ( I have no idea how though)
Basically you need to double click on a Group or Component to open it for editing. But if you have nested components (components within other components) it can be confusing to work out which ‘context’ you are in.
If you double click and you still see a blue bounding box then there is something nested and you’d need to double click that to get into it. Which is what I meant about your components being somewhat mixed up.
Here is your model broken down into its component parts.
Each leg is an instance of one component, the sides are two of one, and the front and back are individuals.
Each would require a single double click to open for editing. Editing one leg will edit all four…
Generally you would then select all those components and any other parts like the bench top and make them into one component, Something like Bench. Then they all move around together as one.
But to edit you would then need to double click once to get into the context of all the individuals then double click one of them to enter it for editing.
So have a look at this model and see how it differs from yours. workbenchBox.skp (40.0 KB)
There is no dedicated beginners part of the forum; you are free to post everywhere.
Regarding organizing your model I’d also recommend showing the Outliner (Windows > Default Tray > Outliner) to get a tree view of nested groups and components. If you have trouble distinguishing entities in the active drawing context from those outside of it you can also go to Window > Model Info > Components and adjust the Fade rest of model slider to get more contrast.
I have learned from a Popular Woodworking series of Quick Time movies that walk you through using the software for woodworking. I’ve had it since 2010. Fine Woodworking has a series called Sketchup, A Guide for Woodworkers. It has both a PDF manual and four videos. I had this since 2012 and use the manual frequently when drawing since I don’t use it all that often.
Here is the Fine Woodworking one. The product is two DVD’s at $16.95 for the Basics and $19.95 for Advanced Techniques.
The Popular Woodworking video is so old that I could not find it, but if you use the following link you will see a number of options. The Shop Class two with Robert Lang are more recent than the one I referenced. This one is good video, but it does not have a written guide.
